A Place to Call Home
by Silvan Arrow
Summary: Starting over is never easy, especially during your college years. Hoping to get a fresh start for her sophomore year, Tenten transfers to Konoha University, but she may get more than she bargained for. NejiTen, NaruHina, SasuSaku, and more...


Silvan Arrow: Well, here it is: I've finally decided to write a Naruto fic! I couldn't resist writing a college fic because 1) I'm in college, and 2) I thought I would try something different other than a high school fic. Now…disclaimer time! And for that I need a muse!

Tenten/appears/ Huh? How did I get here?

Silvan Arrow: Perfect timing! You can do the disclaimer!

Tenten: What? But why me?

Silvan Arrow: Because you're one of the main characters! Now do it!

Tenten/sigh/ Fine… Silvan Arrow does not own Naruto or any of its characters.

Silvan Arrow: Thanks, Tenten! Since the characters are older in this fic, just picture them as they appear in Shippuden. Okay, without any further ado, here's chapter 1! Enjoy!

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A Place to Call Home

Chapter 1: Moving In

"Whew! I'm finally done!" Tenten exclaimed with satisfaction, wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. "I never knew moving into a dorm room could work up such a sweat…"

The nineteen-year old brunette stepped back and surveyed her handiwork with a scrutinizing eye. Her bed was neatly made, her closet and drawers were organized, her laptop sat on her desk in anticipation for classes, and her TV was placed on top of the mini-fridge. 'I wonder if my roommate brought a TV too. She never returned my phone calls or emails over the summer… Wow, it's going to feel weird rooming with a freshman.'

Truth be told, Tenten was actually a sophomore. After graduating high school, she had decided to save a little money by commuting to a local community college and getting her freshman requirements out of the way. But now that she was actually standing on the campus of Konoha University, she couldn't help but feel like she was starting over again.

'But that was the whole purpose of the transfer: to get a fresh start,' she reasoned with herself.

Tenten shook herself from her thoughts as she heard the door open behind her, revealing a girl who she assumed was her roommate. She was about Tenten's height, had short, bright red hair, and seemed to wear a perpetual scowl. "You must be my roommate Tayuya, right? It's nice to meet you! I'm Tenten!" She stuck her hand out politely. (A/N: Just to clarify, it's Tayuya from the Sound Four.)

"Look, Tenten, let's just get one thing straight: stay away from me, don't touch my stuff, and don't get in my way. Got it?" Tayuya snapped, not returning the gesture.

"Um…yeah…" After an awkward silence, Tenten said, "Well, I'm gonna go for a walk while you get moved in. See ya!" She had just met her room mate, and already she couldn't wait to get away from her.

'Oh great…I just got here, and already it's turning into a nightmare. So much for my fresh start…' Tenten thought in frustration as she wandered around the campus. Truth be told, Konoha University had a beautiful campus, with red-bricked paths leading to the various buildings and meandering among beautifully landscaped gardens. There was even a man-made lake with its resident population of ducks and geese.

Tenten glanced at her watch. 2:30. She had to be at the student center by 3 for orientation. The upper classmen wouldn't arrive until tomorrow. Today was just for the freshmen and transfer students to get settled in and meet their orientation groups. 'I should probably get going. It wouldn't hurt to arrive a little early.'

The next hour passed like a blur. Tenten felt like all she did was introduce herself over and over to people she wouldn't even see again. The number of people crammed into the meeting hall was positively suffocating. She could barely move! Amidst the chaos, some random guy bumped into Tenten, causing her to trip and stumble into another girl. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Tenten apologized.

"I-it's okay. D-don't worry about it," the other girl replied so softly that Tenten had trouble hearing over the din of the other students. She had short, black hair and the most unusual, yet still beautiful, milky white eyes that Tenten had ever seen. "I-I'm Hyuuga Hinata."

Even though she was a bit shy, Tenten already liked Hinata way better than any of the other girls she had met. "My name's Tenten. It's nice to meet you. It's pretty chaotic in here, so what say we stick together?"

"H-hai!" Hinata replied with a tiny smile.

Suddenly, a loud, booming voice carried over the din in the auditorium: "ALL RIGHT, LISTEN UP!!!!!" Everyone quieted down and turned to face the woman who had just spoken. She had long blonde hair in two ponytails and looked to be in her twenties. "For those of you who don't know, I'm Tsunade, and I'm the president of Konoha University. I want to welcome all incoming freshmen and transfer students to this esteemed university. Now then, if you'll look at your nametags, you'll see a number. That's your orientation group for the weekend. The professors up front have numbered signs, so find your orientation leader."

Much to Tenten's relief, she and Hinata had the same orientation leader, a tall man with spiky gray hair whose face was half-concealed by a mask. Tenten found it rather odd but decided against asking. Six other students were in her group aside from Hinata. The gray-haired man did a head count and said, "Well, it looks like everyone's here. I'm Hatake Kakashi, and I'll be your orientation leader. I don't particularly like this part of the job, but I don't have much choice in the matter. Now then, meet me outside by the fountain in thirty minutes for your first orientation session." That said, he pulled a little orange book out of his pocket and walked away, totally engrossed in his reading.

"Wow, talk about a motivational genius," Tenten remarked dryly. She looked at the other students in her group. "Well, it looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together, so we might as well get to know each other. I'm Tenten."

"I'm Haruno Sakura. Please to meet you!" a pink-haired girl replied cheerfully.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it!" an orange-haired boy in a jumpsuit shouted.

"Keep your voice down, dobe," a black-haired boy said.

Naruto glared at him. "That's Uchiha Sasuke. Just ignore him."

"Man, this orientation stuff is so troublesome," another boy stated with a bored yawn. He had spiky brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"You think everything is troublesome," a blond-haired girl said. "I'm Yamanaka Ino, and that's Nara Shikamaru."

The last girl also had blond hair, but it was pulled into two ponytails. "My name's Temari. I just transferred from Suna."

"Really? I'm a transfer student too," Tenten replied. "So I take it the rest of you are freshmen?"

"Yep! We all graduated from the same high school too!" Naruto said. "Hinata was in our class too." The white-eyed girl blushed as Naruto mentioned her name.

"Why don't we head over to the fountain? We still need to meet with Kakashi-sensei," Sakura suggested.

Two hours later…

"KAKASHI-SENSEI'S LATE!!! WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH MAKING US WAIT LIKE THIS!!!!?" Naruto shouted in frustration.

"Quit shouting, dobe," Sasuke said.

"Yeah, could you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep over here," Shikamaru added. He was lying on his back in the grass, his hands behind his head.

"So nice to see everyone getting along on your first day." Everyone turned their heads in unison to see Kakashi walking towards them, hands stuffed in his pockets. "Sorry I'm late, but I got lost on the road of life."

"DON'T MAKE EXCUSES!!!!!" Naruto and Sakura shouted.

Kakashi didn't seem fazed by their outburst in the least. "I can already tell this is going to be an interesting weekend. Now then, let's get started."

One hour of get-to-know-you games later, the group was free to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day. "Man, I'm starving! I could really go for a giant bowl of ramen. Hey, teme, let's go get some dinner!" Naruto said to Sasuke.

"Whatever," Sasuke replied.

Shikamaru yawned. "I'm gonna go back and get some sleep. See ya." He walked off without another word.

"We need to finish organizing our apartment," Sakura said to Hinata, Ino, and Temari.

"That sounds like a good idea," Ino replied.

"I take it you four live together?" Tenten asked.

"Yeah, we live in the apartment building on the west end of campus," Sakura replied. "You want to come with us? We were gonna cook dinner after we finished unpacking."

"Actually, I was going to get my textbooks from the campus shop first. I'll be over when I'm done with that."

"Okay! Let me give you my cell number so you can call when you're done." Sakura said.

"All right, see you later!" Tenten waved good-bye and left for the student center. 'Maybe things are starting to look up. I think I could become good friends with these people.'

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'I'm glad I decided to come get my books today,' Tenten thought as she wandered through the almost-deserted campus shop. 'This place will be packed tomorrow.' Based on her her past experiences, people usually waited until the last minute to get their books and then had to stand in line for hours. She had learned that the hard way. Unfortunately, this store was at least three times the size of the bookstore at her community college, so finding the right books was easier said than done.

"Gah! Why does this have to be so hard?" Tenten growled in frustration. She finally decided she would go ask one of the store associates for helped and turned around abruptly…only to crash face-first into a broad, muscular chest.

"I'm sorry! I didn't watch where I was going!" Tenten stammered quickly as she backed away and tried to piece together what remained of her dignity. However, her next words died in her throat as she regarded the person she had bumped into. He stood several inches taller than Tenten, with long, raven-black hair that hung past his shoulders. Oddly enough, had the same milky eyes as Hinata. Simply put, he was the sexiest, most drop-dead gorgeous man Tenten had ever seen. Finding her voice again, Tenten said, "I…guess I should introduce myself. I'm Tenten."

"Hyuuga Neji," the other boy replied.

'Hyuuga? Is he related to Hinata?' Tenten made a mental note to ask her later.

Neji's voice brought Tenten back to reality. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" she asked.

"I asked if you needed help. You seemed to be having trouble," Neji replied simply.

'Sheesh, doesn't this guy ever smile?' Tenten wondered. Instead, she replied, "Yeah, that would be great. I just transferred here, and I'm still getting used to the place."

"Do you have your course list?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, it's right here," Tenten replied, giving him the paper with her classes listed. After looking it over, Neji turned and started walking away. Tenten scurried to catch up. She decided to attempt a conversation to break the ice. "So…what year are you?"

"Sophomore," Neji replied as he stopped in front of the psychology books. He scanned through the stacks and found the one she needed for her psychology class and handed it to her.

"Really? Same here!" Tenten exclaimed. Again she was met with silence. 'Sheesh, this guy isn't very talkative."

For the next few minutes, the conversation was very one-sided. Tenten would ask questions, and Neji would answer in as few words as possible. Five awkward minutes later, Tenten had all her books. "Thank you so much for your help, Neji!"

"No problem. See you later," Neji replied before turning to leave.

'Well that was…unexpected…' Tenten thought, a slight blush creeping up her cheeks. 'This is going to be an interesting year…'

End chapter 1

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Authoress' Note: Hehehehe…Kakashi's such a fun character to write. Introduction chapters are always so hard! Don't worry, the action will pick up in the next chapter, and I'll be introducing more characters from the Naruto universe. So what did you guys think of this chapter? REVIEW if you want me to keep writing this story! 


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